how to say “to cut corners” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לעגל-פינות-1.m4a” /]לְעַגֵּל פִּנּוֹת

Last week we saw the Hebrew expression for to tie up loose ends – לסגור פינות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לעגל-פינות-2.m4a” /] – literally, to close corners.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לעגל-פינות-3.m4a” /]סגירת פינות היא סימן של מקצועיות.

Tying up loose ends is a mark of professionalism.

Don’t confuse לסגור פינות with another expression – לעגל פינות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לעגל-פינות-1.m4a” /] – to round corners, to take shortcuts.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לעגל-פינות-4.m4a” /]הרופא ניסה לעגל פינות והחולה סבל.

The doctor tried to cut corners and the patient suffered.

The active-intensive verb לעגל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לעגל-פינות-5.m4a” /] comes from the root ע.ג.ל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לעגל-פינות-6.m4a” /] meaning round.